Report Criticizes Ex-ATF Chief
Justice Dept. Inspector General Says Truscott Violated Ethics Rules
The former director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives violated ethics rules by requiring 20 employees to help his teenage nephew prepare a high school video project, part of a wide-ranging pattern of questionable expenditures on a new ATF headquarters, personal security and other items, according to a report issued yesterday.
Carl J. Truscott, who previously served as head of President Bush's security detail at the Secret Service, also took several trips with excessive numbers of ATF agents, including a $37,000 journey to London in September 2005 with eight other employees, according to the report.
The report by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine also found fault with Truscott's treatment of some female employees, saying that he ordered two female administrative staff members to prepare meals for guests on several occasions. One of the employees was allegedly required to announce, "Lunch is served."
These and other findings follow Truscott's abrupt resignation in August amid growing questions about his conduct. The Washington Post reported in February that Truscott had allegedly authorized or proposed hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of unnecessary plan changes and upgrades to ATF's new 438,000-square-foot headquarters, which is behind schedule and millions of dollars over budget.
Fine's 157-page report confirms these allegations and many more, concluding that Truscott frequently broke regulations or exercised poor judgment in making decisions that had a serious impact on the ATF's operational budget when the agency was cutting back on vehicle maintenance, bulletproof vests and other basics.
The report also said that Justice investigators were "troubled by Truscott's lack of acceptance of responsibility" for his actions and their repercussions.
"From relatively minor issues, such as decisions on how to furnish the Director's Suite in the new Headquarters building, to major policy directives, such as how many new employees to hire, Truscott attempted to deflect responsibility to his subordinates, misrepresented the amount of involvement he had in the actions, or otherwise sought to distance himself from his own decisions," the report said. "We found several instances where Truscott's statements to us about his conduct were contradicted by numerous other witnesses, and in some instances, by documents as well."
Truscott said in a Sept. 25 letter in response to the findings that the report "is negative in tone" and "impugns my character and integrity without basis."
"Your Draft Report also fails to put the allegations made into context, to make mention of the significant progress ATF made during my stewardship and under difficult circumstances, or balance the allegations made against my unblemished professional career," Truscott said.
He said it was important to be involved in the details of the new headquarters to ensure that the building was designed and constructed properly. Truscott conceded that he should have limited the assistance given to his nephew.
Truscott's Washington attorney, Sheldon Krantz, was traveling outside the country yesterday and could not be reached to comment.
Truscott was briefly replaced by the ATF's career deputy director, Edgar A. Domenech, who reversed a decision to include a costly engraved quotation from Bush's post-9/11 speech to Congress at the new headquarters entrance. U.S. Attorney Michael J. Sullivan of Boston has since been named acting head of the ATF; no permanent replacement has been nominated.
The ATF building, under construction in Northeast Washington, is at least $19 million over its original $120 million budget and its opening has been delayed until next year.
Truscott was particularly fixated on adding "unnecessary amenities" to the director's suite and the building's gymnasium, the inspector general's report said, including millwork estimated at $283,000. Agency e-mails show that Truscott requested a 42-inch flat-screen television set for his office that could be hidden when not in use. He wanted his personal bathroom to include a "[t]elephone, TV flat panel and radio speakers to listen/view news," a quartzite tile floor to match the floor in the building atrium, a bench with a water-resistant wood seat, a tile wall "in horizontal straight stacked layout vs brick," and sconces.
Truscott also suggested buying $100,000 in new equipment for the building's gym, and pushed to build a $156,000 garage to house a single truck owned by the ATF's National Response Team at Fort A.P. Hill.
"Truscott devoted an excessive amount of time to the redesign and upgrading of his suite and the gym, immersing himself in details at a level that we would not expect of the Director of a major law enforcement agency," the report said.
Furthermore, after being warned by congressional staff members to stop spending operational money on the building project, other ATF managers took the lead in scaling back many of the changes Truscott ordered, the report said. "Without those modifications Truscott's design changes would have had a substantially more severe impact on ATF's operational budget," the report said.
Some of Fine's harshest conclusions came in connection with an ATF school documentary by Truscott's nephew, who lives in the Philadelphia area and is described by his uncle as "a young man who is passionate about everything he does -- particularly as it related to his personal interests of videography and his career aspirations of following in my footsteps as a career public servant in the field of law enforcement."
The report said that over 10 months, Truscott's nephew peppered ATF employees in Philadelphia and Washington with e-mails and time-consuming requests, obtaining copies of stock ATF video footage, interviewing ATF officials -- including his uncle -- and using agency video equipment. "Significant ATF resources were used to assist Truscott's nephew on a high school project," the report said.
The nephew submitted his project to his teacher in April 2005, and included the credit, "Thank you for giving me this amazing opportunity Uncle Carl."
The report said he received an "A."
